Race Updates

Just like every other year at the Silver State Winternationals in Las Vegas, NV,
everyone brought out their warmest winter coats and heaters and plenty of blankets.
No one needed any of them. It was actually warm this time! With a high for the week
of 73, it was like a midsummers day at most points. But the climate change did not
derail TEAM RICE’s usual domination of the event, as we won 9 races total (heats/mains
only), coming away with FOUR A-Main victories. We had 2 more in hand and were leading
by a huge margin, but as they say, it’s always the $2.00 part that will get you (B
low-end carburetor screw came out, AA the screw-on spark plug tip came off in the
boot.. SO irritating). But in any event…

Carson Sias came to race and did a great job winning the Jr. Novice A-main. Unlike
most Novice events, this was actually a competitive event where they had a C-main
and transfer races. He started in the 2 hole and got shuffled to the back early,
but stayed patient and ran his line, tracked down the leader and eventually walked
away from him to earn TR our first Main Event of the weekend. In the Jr. Animal race,
his brother Peyton had a bit of a rough call mid-race and was sent to the back, but
was still able to run down the lead pack and pull of a very strong 3rd place finish.
In Sr. Animal, we had a bit of bad luck as both RICE cars in the race got into an
early wreck and Matthew Roberts was unable to finish, and Dario Retych was bent up
a bit and was lucky to finish at all. In the Jr. Honda A-Main, Peyton Sias followed
in his teammate Famous Rhodes’ footsteps from last year, and won his very first big
race event, and in quite convincing fashion. Starting in the 7 spot after winning
the B-main, He marched his way to the front, picking off one car at a time until
the only thing left was to take the victory. He ran an EXCELLENT race, and his XR7
was an absolute bullet coming through traffic. And speaking of Famous, his transition
to the Senior division was pretty smooth, as he won his fourth Winternationals Championship
in Sr. Honda. Driving “The Albatross”, he started on the pole, but after 10 laps
in the race he started to fall back. With 23 laps to go, there was a caution flag,
and we made the executive decision to pull him in to change tires. This decision
proved fruitful, as Famous drove past all of the competition and ended up winning
by over half a lap. It was a very exciting race! In Famous’ other classes (Sr. Stock,
Mod, and Lt. 160), we had some bad luck and technical difficulties that prevented
him from finishing as high as normally expected, but we took away a lot of good learnings
and will come back strong next time. As previously mentioned, in the B & AA classes
we had some heartbreakers, as both cars were the cream of the crop, I mean absolutely
head and shoulders faster than anybody else, and some plain old bad luck got the
best of us. But Tommy McCarthy bounced back in a BIG way in his Lt. World Formula
car, the class that he dominated and won at last year’s Winternationals as well.
After an early flip and having to go to the back, Tommy gathered himself and his
XR Evolution together and just MARCHED to the front, passing 2 (and sometimes 3)
cars at once on occasion. And once he got out front, it was all over. As you can
see in the below video clip, he just walks away from the pack. I mean, just LOOK
at that car float through the corner. For those of you reading who are on the fence
about getting a RICE CAR, this should be all the convincing you ever need. The thing
was on a (bleep)ing RAIL. A mychron check after the race proved that we were over
a tenth faster than the next best car.

And as a bonus event for the weekend, the Good Times club hosted a Handlers Race,
in which all of the old guys got in Honda 120 cars and tried to back up what they’ve
been saying to their kids all this time. It was a great time. D.J. Rice participated,
as did Gregg Boe in a borrowed Rice Car. The weight limit for the class was only
290 pounds (I know, right? Way too low!), and the top 3 cars were the 3 lightest
drivers, with Gregg finishing in 3rd, andD.J. finishing 4th, winning the quote-unquote
“Heavy” portion of the race. But most importantly everyone had a blast with it, and
next year’s Alumni race will hopefully have bigger motor platform and a higher weight
limit, but it will be a lot of fun either way!!